Upcoming ICPCC DAO SNS decentralization sale

Governance SNS Project Governance
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Hi everyone,

I cannot take credit for writing or preparing any of this material because I didn’t, but I am posting it on behalf of the ICP DAO LLC. Personally, I’m bullish and I hope this paper makes you feel this way too.

Keep building,
Seb

Dear ICP Community,

This is an announcement of the upcoming SNS DAO launch for the ICP Community Conference (”ICPCC”) DAO LLC, which will launch a native token called $CONF. This SNS proposal will be submitted to the NNS in 2 weeks on May 4th. The target start date for the SNS decentralization swap sale is May 9th, one day before the ICPCC event on May 10th.

Summary

Project:

  • ICPCC DAO LLC is a community-owned and fully self-sustaining decentralized conference event series devoted to highlighting the ICP’s technology and ecosystem.
  • The DAO will control 100% of the ICP raised during its SNS swap sale, use the treasury to hire vendors to organize its events, and then receive the income from event ticket sales and sponsorships back into its treasury.
  • The ICPCC DAO will be a fully independent Marshall Islands Non-Profit DAO LLC, able to sign legal agreements and manage Intellectual Property via on-chain SNS proposals.
  • The DAO will elect an “ICPCC Council” of 3-5 notable ICP ecosystem leaders to shape critical proposals for the DAO to vote on.

Tokenomics:

  • $CONF will be the native token required for tickets, VIP perks, and merch for future ICPCC events. It will also serve as the SNS governance token.
  • 41% of the token supply will go towards SNS swap sale participants, a new record for SNS DAOs! Code & State will receive 4% according to the same vesting schedule as the SNS swap sale participants.
  • 4% of the token supply will be airdropped to all SNS Swap sale participants who contributed the first 80,000 ICP raised as an “early bird” bonus.
  • 4% of the token supply will be airdropped to ICPCC 2023 & 2024 attendees.
  • After a successful SNS swap sale, Johann Hartman is expected to submit a Request Motion proposal asking ICPCC DAO LLC to add 23,600 $CONF from its treasury alongside a comparable amount of $ICP as liquidity to a DEX, based on the max contribution limit set during the SNS launch.

How ICPCC DAO LLC is making history:

  • It will become the 1st self-sustaining Web3 event series with a fully DAO-controlled treasury.
  • It will be the 1st SNS DAO to be guided by a self-elected “ICPCC Council,” which will give it complete control over a leadership team it owns and manages.
  • It will be the 1st off-chain SNS DAO. An “off-chain DAO” means it will operate as a real-world legal entity to manage off-chain activities. In this case, the DAO will manage its treasury to fund in-person and virtual events.

Full Project Information:

Tokenomics Overview

Please see the above Litepaper for more in-depth information.

Initial Token Supply

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Token Parameters

  • Ticker = $CONF
  • Total Supply = 1,000,000 $CONF - Fixed supply, no inflation.
  • Transfer Fee = 0.0001 $CONF

SNS Launch Parameters

  • Min ICP Raised = 1 ICP - If a low amount of ICP is raised, the DAO can still fund events through collecting sponsorships under the established ICPCC brand. The primary purpose of this SNS sale is to decentralize the existing ICPCC event series under a DAO rather than fundraising.
  • Max ICP Raised = 160,000 ICP
  • Min Participation = 1 ICP
  • Max Participation = 20,000 ICP
  • Min Participants = 400
  • Neuron Fund Participation = No.
  • Restricted Countries:
    • USA - To reduce the risk of SEC scrutiny and start ICPCC DAO LLC in good faith following all industry best practices, Americans are restricted from participating in the sale.
    • Iran, Syria, Cuba, North Korea, & Russia - To comply with the Marshall Islands & United Nations sanctions regimes, residents of these countries are restricted from participating in the sale.

ICPCC DAO LLC Manifesto

We, the people of the ICP community, hereby establish the ICPCC DAO as a living experiment to create an immortal and autonomous public good. This act represents a critical step towards a new type of revolution, not one of industry but of governance, using the power of the Internet Computer Protocol. Let this DAO serve as an example and compass for inspiring a new generation of Web3 innovators who will help humanity construct a world that’s more just, free, fair, accessible, and transparent. The purpose of the ICPCC DAO will be to highlight and forever celebrate the role ICP has in achieving this noble vision of Web3. May we collectively guide it with diligence, unity, pragmatism, and righteousness.

Disclaimer: $CONF is not an investment. $CONF will have no cash value, and no promises for future price, value, or gains are being made by any party. ICPCC DAO LLC is independent and experimental. The creation and sale of the $CONF token is being done on behalf of the ICPCC DAO LLC by the NNS, which is also an independent DAO. By participating in the ICPCC SNS Swap sale, you’re agreeing to the Operating Agreement of the ICPCC DAO LLC. Nothing in this announcement is a recommendation to buy or financial advice

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Hey everyone,

I’ll be offline for the next 24hrs, but please do leave your questions and comments here. On Monday I’ll be back online to provide answers!

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that’s a bit confusing… in the Russia/Ukraine war the Ukraine is clearly not the aggressor. Though people from the Ukraine cannot participate? What puts the Ukraine in the list of mentioned countries and excludes Russia?

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Actually I’m pretty sure it’s an error that Russia is not listed, I’ll verify and address that when I get back on Monday.

There are some specific regions within Ukraine which are on the sanction lists (probably because of being under Russian control), but IP restrictions can only be applied to a full country at once. Unfortunately, that’s why Ukraine has to be listed.

The restrictions are based on a section of the Operating Agreement.

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I’ll like the whole concept of an Offchain sns DaO. Will reach out to u to know more

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Awesome work @aiv & @Seb. Congrats again!

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Liquidity, listing and market making. What are the plans

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@dao1

Ultimately all of these items will be up to the DAO to execute once it’s launched. But the plan is for the initial council member to submit proposals for getting the token listed and for adding substantial liquidity to be added to a DEX.

The liquidity plan is laid out in this section of the Litepaper:

The launch process is outlined in this section of the Litepaper:

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Thank u for the answer. The concern is how to deal with so many tokens given to the sns? How does the market absorb the token emissions

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Well $CONF will have a fixed token supply so there are no emissions from newly minted tokens like with SNS DAOs that use the built-in reward mechanism.

A custom governance reward mechanism will need to be implemented, as explained here:

also here:

Actually, the SNEED team is already working to create something like this because they are also a fixed supply token. A lot of SNS DAOs are looking for ways to provide rewards without being forced to do it through inflation.

When liquidity is initially added, it’s pretty normal for price to dip a bit, but the liquidity is DAO-owned so it won’t rug.

The idea would be that the utility of the $CONF is what would drive demand it over the long term. The commitment for providing this utility is locked into the constitution here:

In addition, the DAO could apply interesting incentives such as “VIP Neuron Events” for staking $CONF as explained here:

As always, DYOR & this is not financial advice or a recommendation to buy.

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I can verify that this list was missing Russia!

Also, looks like Ukraine is more of a judgement call, since the sanctions apply to only some regions. Therefore, it’ll be removed from the list of restricted countries.

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Hi @Seb and @aiv

Many thanks for sharing your plans for the ICP Community Conference! Here are some initial thoughts from my side.

The planned conference series sounds great and will certainly be beneficial to the ICP ecosystem. I fully agree that we need more of these kinds of activities. It is interesting to see that you are experimenting with concepts like a council and an LLC in conjunction with a DAO.

I am not sure about the fit with the SNS framework, given its focus on controlling decentralized applications via an on-chain DAO, while your project puts the focus on an off-chain DAO entity. One could argue that meme coin SNSs also do not control an underlying dapp; however, these kinds of projects tend to ask for very little funding and do not seek Neurons’ fund involvement. I am curious to hear what others think.

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Hi @bjoernek,

ICPCC fits the SNS framework because:

  1. It will in fact need to host and control canisters. Aside from the dapp that hosts its legal documentation, it’ll also be hosting a “VP Proxy Canister” as defined here. It will probably also need to host a canister for executing the airdrops.
  2. It takes advantage of the ecosystems most trustworthy treasury management platform, the one that’s built into every SNS.
  3. It takes advantage of the gasless uncensorable interface that’s build into every SNS.
  4. It’s focused on the promotion and good of the entire ICP ecosystem, while having a clear way to provide sustainable growth and return as an ongoing project with a business model.

In short, it cannot be launched without the SNS, and it takes advantage of every feature the SNS was designed to provide.

Also, even if it didn’t manage any canisters, DFINITY has never published anything specifying an “no off-chain DAO” stance for SNS projects. Considering that the SNS is designed to provide a robust framework for DAO treasury management, that would seem like a unnecessary limitation to set towards it’s future use cases.

In addition, how could anyone predict what an off-chain DAO would end up managing in the future? Aside from the canisters mentioned, ICPCC DAO could very likely end up hosting a full event ticketing mechanism and other types of event-specific dapps.

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So I read your whitepaper.

I like the idea of a DAO running events but this doesn’t feel very decentralised. It says you will have:

" all newly created SNS neurons will have the ICPCC Council Neuron in their initial ”Following” list"

So you could easily have more than 67% of the vote eventually as new neurons are created. Add in that you are not staking any of the treasury it feels like you could be making a lot of ICP whenever you want.

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Hey @jamesbeadle,

Great question!

This would be the DAOs choice:
First off, it’s up to the DAO to decide if new neurons would be set up with the ICPCC Council Neuron (which would be created post-SNS) as a default followee. The DAO members could very well vote to update the constitution to remove that line and then never set things up to work that way.

The constitution is a living document that’ll likely need many edits from and by the DAO. This DAO is so decentralized, there’s no core team who can pre-determine it’s roadmap and operations, it’ll do this itself.

If the DAO decides to not have any neuron followed by default that’s totally fine, this doesn’t need to be implemented and will not be in place at the SNS launch. The ICPCC Council Neuron would be created and set up after the SNS launch, specifically because this gives the DAO power to decide how it’s implemented.

The council neuron adds protections
The ICPCC Council Neuron would be owned by a DAO-controlled canister, and not vote on proposals which configure it or treasury transfer proposals.

The ICPCC Council Neuron would also be set up to do things like delay applying the council votes until the last minute of the proposal time period, to maximize time for anyone following it to vote manually.

Without this VP proxy neuron, if DAO members simply follow council members manually there would indeed be the risk of them quickly influencing their followee VP to access the treasury like you suggest. The whole purpose of the ICPCC Council Neuron was to add protections needed to make having a council at all feasible.

Arguably, this is way more decentralized than most SNS DAOs, since almost everyone just follows the core team neuron directly, and that gives the holder the power to pretty much do whatever they want before anyone else even has a chance to read the proposal.

ICP staking wasn’t excluded
ICP staking wasn’t mentioned in the constitution simply because that should be a decision left to the DAO, based on the size of the treasury and what the plans for events are. I certainly do agree that the ICPCC DAO should totally stake some of it’s treasury!

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To supplement Isaac’s response:

  • I confirm that both the frontend and backend infrastructure of the Galactic Airdrop will be transferred to the control of the ICPCC SNS DAO. This airdrop, occurring concurrently with the ICPCC conference, is expected to recur periodically. It operates through an on-chain infrastructure. While it won’t initially be included in the decentralization sale, it will be later donated to the ICPCC SNS DAO.
  • Furthermore, the NFT Collection from the 2023 ICPCC event will also be placed under the governance of the ICPCC SNS DAO.
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They @jamesbeadle here’s an update:

I just entirely removed the “new neurons would follow the ICPCC Council Neuron by default” language from both the Litepaper and Constitution. It’s up the the DAO.

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I have been a Node Provider for the last several years. I have followed the continued development of the ICP Ecosystem and look forward to contributing new and exciting DAPPS in the future. My background as an entrepreneur, technologist, stakeholder in other ventures, and part of an executive management team charged with bringing value to other stakeholders besides myself, my views are definitely skewed by all of those inputs. Here is a summation of several points regarding the ICPCC DAO that I believe more than support this new and exciting use of the SNS framework to launch a DAO Governance capability that could potentially be adopted by many organizations for many use cases beyond this one. Kudos to Isaac and the others that contributed to this novel approach. My NON-USA colleagues will definitely plan on contributing ICP to this project and hope that others will also.

The ICPCC DAO represents an ambitious and important experiment in decentralized governance and the capabilities of the Internet Computer. By leveraging the SNS framework, on-chain governance, and legal structuring through the Marshall Islands DAO LLC, it pushes the boundaries of what’s possible with decentralized organizations.

The recent decision to remove the default following mechanism for the ICPCC Council Neuron underscores the DAO’s commitment to putting power and responsibility in the hands of individual community members. This move towards a more decentralized and participant-driven governance model aligns with the core ethos of the ICP and the broader decentralized governance movement.

While this change may introduce new challenges, such as the potential for lower engagement from some new participants, it also opens up exciting possibilities for a more diverse, dynamic, and community-driven governance process. The success of the ICPCC DAO will depend on the community’s ability to rise to the challenge of active governance participation and to shape the DAO’s evolution through informed decision-making.

If successful, the ICPCC DAO could pioneer a new model for community-driven events and organizations, demonstrating the power of decentralized governance and the Internet Computer to enable innovative, resilient, and globally impactful initiatives.

As the project progresses, it will provide valuable learnings for the broader DAO and blockchain community, while also contributing to the growth and vibrancy of the ICP ecosystem.

The ICPCC DAO is an opportunity for the ICP community to experiment with and shape the future of decentralized governance. While the journey may have risks, the potential rewards - a successful, self-sustaining, and truly community-driven organization - make it an endeavor worth pursuing.

Happy to hear any thoughts others may have.
John

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Hey @bjoernek

I’m Kyle Stoflet, CEO/Founder at The Swop.
My name is in the initial council member applications which can be found in the ICP CC SNS Litepaper.

I believe that this initiative is needed for the ecosystem, we need something to get people together and build a strong community around. This is how we keep people engaged, and excited about what is being built around the Internet Computer ecosystem, this will even help investors find new opportunities in our ecosystem. The ICP Hubs doing events is great, but simply isn’t enough, and we should be encouraging the community to take initiative. We have been long awaiting a conference hosted by the DFINITY Foundation, I recall part of the benefit of winning/placing high in Supernova, was getting tickets to an ICP conference, it was marketed that way at least. I would love to see that conference come to life, but we can’t wait forever for that to happen. I would be very happy to support and attend that conference if it happens! The ICP ecosystem is worthy of having an annual conference(s), it keeps the energy high for the community and grassroot builders who are often less thought about, or even supported.

I can agree that an off-chain DAO could be a scary thing for the network, if organized by a malicious person or project. Let’s not forget that we have SNS projects who just drain their treasury and act like everything is okay with that. The SNS isn’t perfect, we need more participation around the projects launching instead of a few whales/entities who can collude to pass or reject proposals.

I love the thought of the community voting on the council, and having a constitution around the ICP CC, it’s set to hold everyone accountable. To me, seems like a SNS worthy of experimenting with doing an off-chain DAO, it already has a lot of structure in place to validate that the ICP CC is in fact a serious SNS candidate. I welcome everyone’s opinion, and would love to hear both sides to see a healthy discussion take place here.

Overall my thoughts are that 160,000 ICP at max raise is a tiny fraction of what should really be raised for the Internet Computer to start having annual conferences. I believe we should have more conference events that form to help give our ecosystem a healthy boost in it’s public image. Which could inspire many new investors to enter the ecosystem.

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@bjoernek

I’m a little frustrated with the communications here from DFINITY, so I’ll try to lay out my reasoning as to why.

First off, I’m not saying I disagree with you about the off-chain piece. I’ve been very critical about all SNSes in the past on these forums, and the risks posed by the tight coupling between the the SNS and NNS.

That being said, there’s the case of EstateDAO, a vacation home & real estate venture that “came out of stealth mode” in January and just SNSed with full DFINITY support.

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As of April 25th, 8:30am Zurich time (the time of this post), this is the full list of properties currently available on EstateDAO’s website.

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Again, this application was in “stealth mode” for 2 years, and has a single property listed. The EstateDAO SNS thread has zero feedback from DFINITY as of the time of this post.

DePin (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure) is a new and experimental place for crypto and blockchain right now. I would put both EstateDAO and ICPCC in this category. In fact, in a way ORIGYN’s gold backed NFTs, which have a significant off-chain component also fall into this category.

EstateDAO Minimum Commitment: 75k ICP
EstateDAO Maximum Commitment: 500k ICP
ICPCC DAO Minimum Commitment: 25k ICP
ICPCC DAO Maximum Commitment: 160k ICP

Many of us in the ICP community were originally excited when DFINITY promised the community a conference after the Supernova Hackathon in June 2022, with up to 6 “Free Tickets” to the first ICP conference as the prize for the winning team of each track (there were 6 tracks total) .

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A DFINITY backed ICP conference never materialized over the following 12 months, and in 2023 the ICP community organized the very first ICP Community Conference (ICPCC) in Miami Florida.

Note: The first ICP Community Conference did not receive a single promotional tweet or mention from DFINITY, nor did a single currently employed full-time employee from DFINITY (not contractor) attend. No attendees were there on behalf of, or representing DFINITY.

Despite the lack of support from DFINITY, the conference was full of ICP projects and leaders throughout the ecosystem, from ORIGYN to NFID, @skilesare, @lastmjs, @bob11, and more.

The 2023 ICPCC was completely funded by private investors in the ICP ecosystem. In-person conferences are expensive to facilitate, albeit putting on a community conference in the middle of the 2023 bear market has a huge positive impact in fostering connections, introducing new builders and investors to ICP, and just getting people excited again about the ecosystem.

As for connecting the blockchain with in-person events, at 2023’s ICPCC the physical [Ntagled](the https://twitter.com/ntagled) wallet project put together badges for that conference that airdropped all sorts of tokens to participants. It was actually really neat.

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I know that other projects like AstroX have also been working on physical wallet infrastructure, and in fact DFINITY came to Bitcoin Miami the following week handing out ckBTC (DFINITY did not attend ICPCC).

Regardless of who puts on the conference, I hope we can all agree that ICP needs a conference for the entire community that includes DFINITY, builders, users, investors, and everyone in-between who’s curious about what’s possible on web3. These conferences will celebrate the ICP community and provide a way for newcomers to learn about the ecosystem.

The funds for these conferences need to come from somewhere, and in the absence of DFINITY a DAO is an novel way to manage how conference funds are managed. And by responsible, I mean definitely NOT like this:



As NNS voters I think we’re all trying to figure out what should and shouldn’t be an SNS, but @bjoernek as the current sole respondent from DFINITY I hope you can appreciate these frustrations in reading your post:

  1. DFINITY hinted at an Internet Computer Developer Conference, awarded tickets, did not put on a conference and still hasn’t (3 years since genesis).
  2. DFINITY did not support or send guest speakers on behalf of DFINITY to the first ICPCC.
  3. DFINITY just supported an DePin DAO project several weeks ago, voting “Yes” on Estate DAO’s SNS without providing a single critical piece of feedback.


@bjoernek regardless of if DFINITY thinks ICPCC is a good SNS project, it would really mean a lot to those attending to see both technical and roadmap/vision talks from DFINITY engineering and cryptography leaders such as yourself, @Manu, @ais, and others at ICPCC.

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